The present invention relates to a data processing method and apparatus and, in particular, discloses a method and apparatus for storing the negative of an original image taken from a camera system in a fault tolerant form with the original image using an infra-red ink.
In U.S. Pat. No. 6,459,495, the applicant disclosed a method and apparatus for printing data in an encoded fault tolerant form on the back of a photograph preferably using black ink on a white background. The data represented the photograph in a xe2x80x9cnegativexe2x80x9d format and/or data comprising a computer program script which could be run to recreate the image or to apply some effect to the image. A programing language called VARK script was invented for this purpose which was designed to be portable and device independent.
Various methods, systems and apparatus relating to the present invention are disclosed in the following co-pending applications filed by the applicant or assignee of the present invention:
The disclosures of these co-pending applications are incorporated herein by reference. Various methods, systems and apparatus relating to the present invention are disclosed in the following co-pending applications filed by the applicant or assignee of the present invention on Jul. 10, 1998:
U.S. Ser. No. 09/113,070 (Docket No. ART02US)
U.S. Pat. No. 6,459,495 (Docket No. ART29US)
The disclosures of these co-pending applications are incorporated herein by reference.
Various methods, systems and apparatus relating to the present invention are disclosed in the following co-pending applications filed by the applicant or assignee of the present invention on Jun. 30, 2000:
U.S. Pat. No. 6,471,331 (Docket No. CPE01US)
U.S. Ser. No. 09/608,779 (Docket No. CPE02US)
U.S. Pat. No. 6,347,864 (Docket No. CPE03US)
U.S. Pat. No. 6,439,704 (Docket No. CPE04US)
U.S. Pat. No. 6,425,700 (Docket No. CPE05US)
U.S. Ser. No. 09/607,991 (Docket No. CPE06US)
The disclosures of these co-pending applications are incorporated herein by reference.
As the applicant has previously noted in pending applications U.S. Ser. No. 09/113,070 and U.S. Pat. No. 6,459,495 (Docket No. ART29US) there is a general need for a print media scanning system that allows for high volumes of computer data to be stored on a simple print media, such as a card while simultaneously tolerating a high degree of corruption when read by a scanning device. For example, the form of distribution can suffer a number of data corruption errors when the surface is scanned by a scanning device. The errors can include:
1. Dead pixel errors which are a result of reading the surface of the card with a linear CCD having a faulty pixel reader for a line thereby producing the same value for all points on the line.
2. Preferably, the system adopted can tolerate errors wherein text is written by the owner of the card on the surface. Such errors are ideally tolerated by any scanning system scanning the card.
3. Various data errors on the surface of the card may arise and any scuffs or blotches should be tolerated by any system determining the information stored on the surface of the card.
4. A certain degree of xe2x80x9cplayxe2x80x9d exists in the insertion of the card into a card reader. This play can comprise a degree of rotation of the card when read by a card reader.
5. Further, the card reader is assumed to be driven past a linear image sensor such as a CCD by means of an electric motor. The electric motor may experience a degree of fluctuation which will result in fluctuations in the rate of transmission of the data across the surface of the CCD. These motor fluctuation errors should also be tolerated by the data encoding method on the surface of the card.
6. The scanner of the surface of the card may experience various device fluctuations such that the intensity of individual pixels may vary. Reader intensity variations should also be accounted for in any system or method implemented in the data contained on the surface of the card.
Ideally, any scanning system should be able to maintain its accuracy in the presence of errors due to the above factors.
In application U.S. Ser. No. 09/113,070 and U.S. Pat. No. 6,459,495, the applicant disclosed a method and apparatus for printing data in an encoded fault tolerant form on the back of a photograph preferably using black ink on a white background. The data represented the photograph in a digital image file format and/or data comprising a computer programme script which could be run to recreate the image or to apply some effect to the image. A programming language called a VARK script was invented for this purpose which was designed to be portable and device independent.
The present invention seeks to provide an alternative to the aforesaid method of encoding and recording data by printing the digital data corresponding to the negative of an image in an encoded fault tolerant digital form over or with the image itself using infra-red ink, the image and the data being recorded on a print media using an ink jet printing system as disclosed by the applicant.
It is an object of the present invention to provide a method of printing data including encoded image data in a digital format on a photograph including the steps of:
a) receiving image data corresponding to an image in an electronic digital form from an electronic image sensor;
b) producing from said digital image data an encoded fault tolerant digital form thereof;
c) printing out, at least said fault tolerant digital form of said digital image data using a drop on demand ink jet printing process using an infra-red ink on a surface of a print media while simultaneously printing out said image data as a photographic image representing said image in a visual, human readable form on the same surface of said print media.
Preferably, said step of producing first includes forming the negative of said image as said digital image data which is then encoded.
Preferably, said encoding step includes compressing said image data and processing it using a Reed-Solomon algorithm.
To assist reading, the data surface area of the photograph may be modulated with a checkerboard pattern. Other forms of high frequency modulation may be possible however.
It is a further object of the invention to provide apparatus for printing encoded fault tolerant digital data in infra-red on a photograph, said apparatus including:
a) a camera system for electronically imaging an image and for outputting said image in a digital format;
b) means for processing said digital format of said output image into a fault tolerant encoded digital form
c) means for printing said image in a human readable form and said fault tolerant encoded digital form using an ink jet printer, said fault tolerant encoded digital form being printed using an infra-red ink over or interlaced with said human readable form of said image.
Preferably, the means for printing employs a printer with a page width printhead using an ink jet structure, for example, as disclosed in applicant""s references stated above, U.S. Pat. No. 6,471,331 (Docket No. CPE01US), U.S. Ser. No. 09/608,779 (Docket No. CPE02US), U.S. Pat. No. 6,347,864 (Docket No. CPE03US), U.S. Pat. No. 6,439,704 (Docket No. CPE04US), U.S. Pat. No. 6,425,700 (Docket No. CPE05US), U.S. Ser. No. 09/607,991 (Docket No. CPE06US), with a print roll feeding print media therethrough, for example as disclosed in applicant""s Artcam application U.S. Ser. No. 9/113,070 or U.S. Pat. No. 6,459,495.
According to a preferred form of the invention the information is printed out on a photograph which may be a standard size of approximately 102xc3x97152 mm (4xe2x80x3xc3x976xe2x80x3) compared to the prior art data encoded card which has a format of 85 mmxc3x9755 mm (approximately the size of a credit card). The increased size of the recording media allows approximately three to four times as much data to be recorded on the photograph compared to the previous format while using a similar or identical data encoding technique.